“Can Africa's dominant mobile money network become a developer-accessible financial infrastructure platform for the continent?”
Launched in 2007 by Safaricom as a peer-to-peer mobile money transfer service, M-PESA evolved into Africa's dominant mobile money platform powering payments, savings, credit, and merchant acceptance across Kenya. The platform expanded into business credit (Fuliza, Taasi Till via Asante), BNPL (Faraja via EDOMx), and international payments (PayPal, Visa virtual card, Wise corridor). The 2025 launch of Daraja 3.0 signals a push toward 'Fintech 2.0' — opening M-PESA as a developer-accessible financial infrastructure layer rather than a closed mobile money product.
M-Pesa discloses Safaricom PLC / M-PESA (in-house, CBK-regulated trust-based e-money) as its banking provider, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
M-Pesa does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through Safaricom PLC / M-PESA (in-house, CBK-regulated trust-based e-money).
M-Pesa processes payments through M-PESA (self-operated), Lipa na M-PESA (self-operated), Pochi la Biashara (self-operated), M-PESA PayBill (self-operated), Buy Goods (self-operated) and PayPal (M-PESA PayPal Service partnership).
M-Pesa uses Wise (inbound corridor to M-PESA), PayPal (M-PESA PayPal Service) and Visa (virtual card for global digital payments) for FX and cross-border payouts.
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 4 layers in M-Pesa's stack: Payments / PSP (M-PESA (self-operated), Lipa na M-PESA (self-operated), Pochi la Biashara (self-operated), M-PESA PayBill (self-operated) and 2 others); Banking / BaaS (Safaricom PLC / M-PESA (in-house, CBK-regulated trust-based e-money)); Lending (Fuliza (overdraft), Fuliza Biashara (merchant overdraft), Taasi Till Loan (1/7/21-day merchant loan, KES 100–200,000), Faraja BNPL (30-day zero-interest consumer credit) and 2 others); FX & payouts (Wise (inbound corridor to M-PESA), PayPal (M-PESA PayPal Service) and Visa (virtual card for global digital payments)).
M-Pesa is founded in 2007 and headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya.
Get a read on where your own stack stands against M-Pesa and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.